Over the years, I have read numerous reports about how much worse boys are doing in school than girls. Having been a boy, I have always felt kind of lousy about this news. Now, according to a Washington-based think tank, after analyzing results from 30 years of National Association of Educational Progress tests, scores for boys are up, and the gap between girls and boys has narrowed. I have a married daughter with four young boys and no girls, so I was relieved to learn they may not grow up inferior to their female counterparts.

The greatest gains in reading were among 9-year-old boys, who gained 15 points on a 500 point scale between 1971 and 2004, while girls gained seven points. At the high school level, however, the gaps between boys and girls did not narrow, but rather girls gained a point in reading, while boys were down a point. Overall, boys are only 14 points behind girls in reading scores now. The report was quick to state that some groups of boys, particularly Hispanic and African American males from low-income families, remain in serious trouble. As with every study, there is controversy over the interpretation of test results, but it does make for interesting discussion.